FujiVis vs Is Fuji Visible — Which Should You Use to Check Mount Fuji?
People asking “is Mount Fuji visible today?” usually end up choosing between three sites: FujiVis, isfujivisible.com and isitvisible.com. This page compares them on the things that actually change your decision — how the score is built, how often it updates, how many cameras you can verify against, and what happens if you also intend to climb.
We wrote this, so read it as a vendor's comparison. Every claim about the other two sites is taken from their own pages, linked below, and we have flagged where they are ahead of us rather than quietly omitting it. If a number here is out of date, that is our error, not a rhetorical trick.
Short Version
- FujiVis is the better choice when the trip involves climbing, because the viewing index is only half the product: the page also carries an A/B/C climbing grade refreshed four times a day and route weather every 30 minutes. For a pure "is it visible right now" check, neither site is live - both generate their viewing forecast once daily, so the camera layer decides it.
- Is Fuji Visible is the better choice if you want the widest camera coverage or the longest planning horizon: it mirrors 36 live cameras against our 18, and forecasts 10 days ahead against our 8.
- Is It Visible is the strongest pick for a single real-time number — it publishes a 0-100 score refreshed every 15 minutes with its weighting formula on the page — but it is a visibility-only tool with no climbing layer.
- Serious Fuji photographers do not pick one. They read a score, open a camera, and check official notices. Use whichever two of these three you can load fastest.
Feature by Feature
FujiVis columns are from our own code and pages. Competitor columns are from isfujivisible.com and isitvisible.com as published in September 2026 — follow the links to check them.
| FujiVis | Is Fuji Visible | Is It Visible | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Score scale | 1-10 | 1-10 | 0-100 |
| Viewing forecast refresh | Once daily, 16:30 JST | Once daily | Weather data refreshed every 15 minutes |
| Forecast horizon | 8 days | 10 days | 10 days |
| North / south split | Yes — separate scores per side | Yes — North (Kawaguchiko) and South (Hakone) | Single landmark score |
| AM / PM split | Yes | Yes | Best-viewing-times list |
| Live cameras | 18 points across 11 areas, switchable in one player | 36 mirrored cameras | 12+ streams |
| Published methodology | Yes — re-grading method and data sources documented | Yes — methodology page | Yes — full weighted formula on page |
| Climbing data | A/B/C grade four times daily (01:30/07:30/13:30/19:30 JST), summit weather, 4 official trails, route weather every 30 min | Not a climbing product | Not a climbing product |
| Historical data | Daily forecast values archived and published as an open dataset | Visibility-by-month statistics | States validation against camera history |
| Languages | 5 (Japanese, English, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Korean) | 15 | English |
Where FujiVis Is Genuinely Ahead
Four readings a day, not one blended score
Our viewing forecast is generated once daily at 16:30 Japan time - the same cadence as Is Fuji Visible, and we will not pretend otherwise. What differs is granularity: we publish morning and afternoon scores separately for the north and south sides, so one day yields four distinct readings instead of a single number. When the two halves of a day disagree, that is the difference between driving up at dawn and driving up at noon.
One tool for the viewing trip and the climb
Is Fuji Visible and Is It Visible answer “can I see it?” FujiVis also answers “should I go up?” The climbing page carries the official A/B/C grade, summit temperature and wind, and 30-minute route weather for Yoshida, Subashiri, Gotemba and Fujinomiya. If Fuji is one of the places you intend to stand on rather than photograph from a lake shore, that layer is not available on the other two.
You can audit us
Every daily score is archived and published as an open dataset, with per-month history pages. That means “how often was it actually visible from Kawaguchiko in January” is a question you can answer from data rather than from our marketing. We publish the re-grading method and name the upstream provider — the Japan Weather Association's Tenkura service, with Open-Meteo for secondary hourly data.
Where They Are Ahead of Us
Camera coverage
Is Fuji Visible mirrors 36 cameras; we cover 18 across 11 areas. For confirming a specific distant viewpoint — a particular pass, shrine or lakeshore — their list is broader. Our 18 are chosen to cover every side of the mountain plus Tokyo-facing viewpoints, but we will not pretend eighteen beats thirty-six.
Planning horizon
Both competitors publish 10-day forecasts; we publish 8. If you are planning eleven or twelve days out, use them. Practically, day 8 of any visibility forecast is a trend indicator rather than a decision input, so the extra two days carry little weight — but the gap is real.
Real-time granularity and languages
Is It Visible's 0-100 score at 15-minute intervals is far more current than our once-daily viewing index, and it publishes its exact weighting formula (visibility distance 40%, cloud cover 30%, precipitation 20%, humidity 10%). Is Fuji Visible ships 15 languages; we ship 5. If you read German, French, Spanish or Turkish, we are not the site for you.
Which to Use, by Situation
You are in Tokyo deciding whether to leave now
Open our today-visibility page or Is It Visible's live score, then load one north-side camera. The deciding factor at that moment is the camera, not the forecast — a score that was true at 07:30 may already be stale by early afternoon.
You are planning a Kawaguchiko weekend this week
Use the 8-day forecast here or the 10-day at Is Fuji Visible to pick the day, then re-read the score on the morning of travel. Aim for the morning half-day: the mountain is clearest in the two hours after sunrise and cloud builds through the afternoon.
You are climbing Yoshida or Fujinomiya
FujiVis, because the other two do not carry the grade. Then cross-check the trail's open status on the official climbing site, fujisan-climb.jp — no visibility tool replaces the operator's own closure notice.
You are chasing Diamond Fuji or an inverted Fuji
Neither visibility score is enough on its own. You need sun position (PhotoPills or SunCalc), a wind reading low enough for a mirror-flat lake surface, and a camera at the specific shore you plan to shoot from. Our Five Lakes cameras cover the reflection side; Is Fuji Visible lists more of them.
Comparison Questions
Which Mount Fuji visibility site is the most accurate?
None publishes a long-term, independently verified accuracy score measured against actual observations, so no site can honestly claim to be the most accurate. What you can compare is the method: which factors are weighted, how often the data is refreshed, and whether past predictions are archived. FujiVis archives every daily score as an open dataset; Is It Visible publishes its weighted formula; Is Fuji Visible publishes monthly statistics. Treat all three as probabilities, then confirm with a live camera.
Do FujiVis and Is Fuji Visible use the same data?
No. FujiVis derives its index from the Japan Weather Association's Tenkura forecast with Open-Meteo as a secondary hourly source, then re-grades it with its own published method. Is Fuji Visible states that its weather layer comes from Yr.no, the Norwegian Meteorological Institute. Different upstream models and different grading are exactly why two sites can disagree on the same day — that disagreement is information, not error.
Should I trust a visibility score or a live camera?
A camera is an observation and a score is a forecast, so they answer different questions. For “right now”, trust the camera. For “which day next week”, trust the score and re-check later. The failure mode to avoid is the single source: a sunny forecast for the town, with the mountain itself wrapped in cloud at 3,776 m.
Is FujiVis free, and is it funded by ads?
Yes, free. FujiVis is run by VoyBird as part of a set of public data tools; the founder, data sources and method are on the about and methodology pages, and corrections are reflected in the published dataset.
Sources for the Competitor Columns
- Is Fuji Visible — homepage, forecast, cameras and FAQ
- Is It Visible — methodology and scoring formula
- Mt. Fuji official climbing site (weather, cameras, trail status)
- FujiVis methodology
- FujiVis data sources and refresh frequency
Comparison checked September 2026